Some Chelsea supporters have been left gutted with the news Ruben Loftus-Cheek trained on his own at Cobham on Thursday.
The Blues take on Newcastle United at St. James' Park on Saturday afternoon, just four days after their Carabao Cup victory over Southampton at Stamford Bridge.
In that game, Loftus-Cheek was left out of the squad, with the 25-year-old midfielder suffering with a hip problem, meaning he was unavailable to take on the Saints.
Thomas Tuchel, when speaking before his side's sup victory, confirmed that Loftus-Cheek felt some pain in his hip, but thought he would be back for Saturday's clash with the Magpies.
Tuchel said: "Ruben felt after training some pain in his hip joint. Hopefully we can handle it for Saturday."
However, despite Tuchel's confidence in having his midfielder available for Saturday, he was not training with his team-mates on Thursday, which caused disappointment among the Chelsea fan base on social media.
In football.london 's 'things spotted' from Chelsea's training, we mentioned Loftus-Cheek was absent, and we also included Christian Pulisic training with his team-mates.
Pulisic has not represented Chelsea since their Premier League clash with Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season, and after that came the international break where the American picked up an injury with the USMNT squad.
"Once these players with these quick movements, like Christian, once they feel this pain and are not free in the movement, the recovery is not happening, so you start all over again," Tuchel said earlier this month.
"He is very impatient, of course. He does everything and we can see him suffer in every meeting and every time we meet him here in our training centre, he is really suffering. He wants to be on the pitch and help us. Everybody is doing their very best, but unfortunately, the injury takes its time."
Tuchel will be hoping Pulisic can take some part in Chelsea's meeting with Newcastle this weekend, but the American winger is unlikely to be rushed back to action.
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The Blues can extend their advantage at the top of the Premier League table with three points on Tyneside, with Liverpool playing at the same time in their home clash with Brighton & Hove Albion.
Meanwhile, Manchester City are also in action at the same time, with Crystal Palace the latest visitors to the Etihad Stadium as the title race hots up.
